Lalas: Beckham can be bigger than Pele

Alexi Lalas believes David Beckham’s legacy can be greater than Pele’s for football in the United States.

The Los Angeles Galaxy president and general manager on Friday night presented new signing Beckham to around 5,000 of the Major League Soccer club’s fans in a special ceremony at the Home Depot Center stadium.

And he is convinced Beckham can sustain the initial hype surrounding his arrival throughout his five-year contract and beyond, saying: “There’s a very different soccer environment now in the United States. We have great players and we’ve qualified for the past five World Cups. It’s a very different soccer culture to when Pele and Franz Beckenbauer came to the NASL.”

He added: “Having said that, first and foremost David Beckham is going to help us win soccer games but obviously he’s going to help the sport and not just the Galaxy but all the teams.

“What gets lost in this sometimes is the fact that we’re getting a great soccer player that is going to help us win on the field.”

Pele this week said Beckham must be a winner in the MLS or face the fact people will stop caring about football in the States.

Lalas later told ESPN: “We’re going to have to manage some expectations because the fact is we’re going to win with David Beckham and we’re going to lose with David Beckham. He’s not going to score five goals a game and we have to manage those expectations.

“But, he is going to give moments of brilliance and he’s going to be part of a team. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We play in a very competitive league in the MLS.

“He has played for Real Madrid and Manchester United and I would love to have those type of resources to be able to go out and buy those types of players and really hedge my bets to increase our chances of winning.

“We have a salary cap, we have a structure, our teams are very competitive and it’s going to be a very unique and different environment to what he’s used to.”